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By Anthony Vargas,Reporter
Peace Corps volunteer Julia
Campbell was clubbed to death, an autopsy revealed on Saturday.
Forensic experts from the
Philippine National Police who conducted the autopsy said Campbell
sustained severe head injuries that led to her death.
She had been missing for 10 days
before her body was found Wednesday in a shallow grave near a creek
in the village of Batad in Ifugao.
It was flown to Manila for the
autopsy, which was performed at the Loyola Memorial Chapels in
Makati City.
“The cause of death is multiple
traumatic injuries in the head,” Chief Insp. Mamerto Bernabe, the
PNP Crime Laboratory’s chief medico legal officer, told a press
briefing.
The examination of Campbell’s
body was observed by American forensic experts.
When asked if Campbell might have
been bludgeoned to death, Bernabe said: “It’s a possibility.”
He said the examination was
completed about 3 p.m. and a report was being prepared for the PNP
chief, Director General Oscar Calderon.
The shallow grave raised
speculation that the 41-year-old Virginian native might have been
killed by robbers.
Police has launched a manhunt for
a Batad resident had been seen near where Campbell’s body was
found.
Campbell arrived in Batad on
Easter Sunday and had planned to hike a trail that leads to the
world-famous Banaue Rice Terraces.
The autopsy was observed by three
American forensic experts and representatives from the US Embassy in
Manila.
After the autopsy, her body will
be turned over to US Embassy authorities for proper disposition.
Campbell had been in the country
for the past two years, working in depressed areas in Bicol. Her
last assignment was as an English teacher in a college in Legazpi
City.
Campbell is among the 137 US
Peace Corps volunteers serving in the Philippines.
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